Oh boy! Liberty students evaluates evolution

Students from Liberty "University" visit the Natural History Museum in Washington. They are creationists, but purport to want to learn about evolution (of course, in order to understand its flaws, but still...)

The young "creationists" examined a model of the Morganucodon rat, believed to be the first and common ancestor of mammals that appeared some 210 million years ago.

Lauren Dunn, 19, a second-year biology student, was unimpressed.

"210 million years, that's arbitrary. They put that time to make up for what they don't know," she said.

Arbitrary? It's based on radiometric dating. Time to learn some geology and physics, Lauren. You can't falsify evolution by hearsay.

Nathan Hubbard, a 20-year-old from Michigan and a first-year biology major who plans to become a doctor, regarded the model with suspicion.

"There is no scientific, biological genetic way that this, this rat, could become you," he said, seemingly scandalized by the proposition.

No scientific mechanism that you know of. Score another one for not learning anything at Liberty.

"In order to be the best creationist, you have to be the best evolutionist you can be," said Marcus Ross, who teaches paleontology and says of Adam and Eve: "I feel they were real people, they were the first people."

Okay, so while trying to be the best evolutionist (ignoring that the term should be "evolutionary biologists" - evolutionists are more precisely anyone who believes in evolution) you can be, feeling that Adam and Eve were real people is acceptable as a way of knowing to this teacher of paleontology. Stunning!

David DeWitt, a Liberty University biology professor, opens his classes with a prayer, asking God to help him teach his students.

"I pray that you help me to teach effectively and help the students to learn and defend their faith," he says.

Wait, I thought he was teaching biology. Learning to defend faith (the antithesis of science) really isn't part of a normal, academic, biology curriculum. It reeks of nitpicking the evidence to suit your needs.

At the Smithsonian Institute, among crowds of weekend visitors, the Liberty University students visited the evolution exhibition,.But Darwin's explanation for why giraffes have long necks -- that they evolved over time so they could reach higher foliage -- and displays of fossil evidence failed to sway them.

Not that I think it makes any difference to creationists, but I don't buy that explanation either. I believe long necks and legs evolved through sexual selection - male giraffes fight for territory with their necks and legs (this previous post includes great footage of two necking males - it's a must-see).

Though Ross acknowledges that the United States is among the most welcoming environments in the world for creationists, he said it can be difficult to convince people to take him and his beliefs seriously.

"The attitude is when you are a creationist you are ignorant of the facts," he said.

That's because you're ignorant of the facts!

Alternatively, some creationists do appreciate the facts, and yet somehow manage to reconcile that with their faith, like Todd C. Wood, who is a truly remarkle mental gymnast. Yet others lie through their teeth.

Pleiotropy comes from the Greek πλείων pleion, meaning "more", and τρέπειν trepein, meaning "to turn, to convert". It designates the occurrence of a single gene affecting multiple traits, and is a hugely important concept in evolutionary biology.

I'm a postdoc at UC Santa Barbara.

All Many aspects of evolution interest me, but my research focus is currently on microbial evolution, adaptive radiation, speciation, fitness landscapes, epistasis, and the influence of genetic architecture on adaptation and speciation.